Sculpt your face with a “hammer”. a disturbing aesthetic trend that is gaining momentum on Tiktok

Some people are willing to do anything to meet the dictates of beauty. Get Botox injected into your neck to look younger, stick fake boats on your stomach to make yourself look slimmer, or even pour beer in the hopes of getting a tan faster. Recently, a new, equally crazy ‘fantasy’ has gone viral on social media, hitting the bones of his face to create a more perky look. Exclusively requested by young men, this practice is called “breaking bones” in English (literally “break the bones” in French) consists of hammering with all kinds of unusual accessories (hammer, stone, face massager, etc.) to bring out certain facial features.

Contour effect

Lots of tutorials and before/after conversions abound on Tiktok, where videos on the topic have over 409 million views. Many users who demonstrate it praise the merits of this technique for getting a more squared and defined jawline, delicate chin and chiseled cheekbones. that is, three standards of male beauty that still dominate society and that embody a certain archetype of abundance as opposed to a round and chubby face.

Wolff’s law

Proponents of this method claim that it is based on the work of the German anatomist and surgeon Julius Wolff in the 1800s, which gave rise to “Wolf’s Law”. American magazine reports Forbes: , this says that bones are not completely inanimate structures, but are constantly being remodeled throughout life. They are formed or absorbed depending on the mechanical stresses to which they are subjected. If external forces stimulate the skeleton, it will respond by thickening and strengthening the bone mass. Conversely, when we stop stimulating it, its density gradually decreases and the bones become thinner and weaker. This is where his “jaw line” or his zygomatic bones regularly to make them more prominent.

However, no scientific study proves that the technique “breaking bones” works, especially when it is applied outside of a medical context, without professional supervision and with the help of random instruments. On the contrary, it can be dangerous, causing deformations or even fractures. In addition, the face is not only made up of bones, but also connective tissues and eyeballs, which can be irreparably damaged in the process.